Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC)
February 4, 2009
Evidence of the Use of the Civilian Population as Human Shields:
Hamas operatives detained during Operation Cast Lead related that weapons
were situated in schools, mosques and residential dwellings, that operatives
shot from within residential neighborhoods, and that Hamas operatives
stole the humanitarian aid for their own use1.
For annotated version:
www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e055.htm
Overview
1. During Operation Cast Lead the IDF detained dozens of terrorist
operatives, most of them belonging to Hamas. All the terrorists detained
were transferred to the Israel Security Agency for interrogation, where they
revealed a great deal of information about the use Hamas made of public
buildings (including mosques and schools) and private residences as sites
for storing weapons. They also related that rockets were fired from public
and private buildings, and that public institutions were put to military use
based on the assumption that the IDF would be deterred from attacking them.
2. In addition, the operatives said that Hamas had commandeered the
humanitarian aid sent to the Gaza Strip and prevented it from being freely
distributed to the Gazans. They said that Hamas exploited sources of
external aid to reward operatives and as bait to enlist new ones.
Palestinians who agreed to join Hamas received food coupons and other
benefits.
3. Operatives belonging to Hamas and the other terrorist organizations
regularly fire rockets and mortar shells from close proximity to public
buildings, including educational institutions . That is done primarily
because such structures protect them from IDF attacks against rocket
launchers and rocket launching squads, evidence of which could be found in
the period before Operation Cast Lead. 2
4. Additional evidence was provided by Nawaf Feisal Attar , a Hamas
terrorist operative from Al-Atatra in the northern Gaza Strip , detained on
January 11,2009 . During interrogation he admitted that Hamas regularly
launched rockets from near schools. As examples he gave the Sakhnin school
in the Abu Halima neighborhood and another in the Al-Mal neighborhood,
saying that rockets were fired from both. He said that was because Hamas
operatives knew Israeli aircraft would not attack a school.
5. During Operation Cast Lead, IDF forces often had to deal with
booby-trapped schools and rocket launchers positioned near schools. In one
instance, on January 18, after Israel had announced it was holding its fire,
a rocket launcher was identified between two school buildings. The launcher
was not attacked by the Israeli Air Force because of its proximity to the
schools.
6. Hamas stores weapons in civilian dwellings in densely populated areas,
and sometimes rockets are launched near them. Both routinely and during
Operation Cast Lead, when the Israeli Air Force carried out pinpoint aerial
attacks, aircraft cameras captured powerful secondary explosions , evidence
of the presence of large quantities of weapons and explosives stored in
private houses. By situating weapons and firing from residential civilian
areas, Hamas knowingly endangered Gazans' lives.
7. Hamas operative Nawaf Feisal Attar , a resident of Al-Atatra, detained on
January 11, 2009 , said that masked Hamas operatives regularly launched
rockets from civilian houses and agricultural areas despite the objections
of the owners, who feared their houses and fields would be destroyed by the
IDF. However, he said, local opposition was limited because the Palestinian
population did not dare argue with Hamas operatives, who would shoot their
legs or even kill them, claiming they were collaborators. 3
8. Rami Misbah Abed Rabbo , a Hamas operative from Jabaliya , said during
interrogation that this past year he often conducted observations from his
house and reported to Hamas about IDF movements. He also said that during
the lull arrangement he was approached by a Hamas operative who asked him to
put IEDs in a citrus grove near his house. He said that Hamas stored large
quantities of weapons in citrus groves. Raji Misbah Abed Rabbo , also a
resident of Jabaliya , a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist operative, said
that he had stored IEDs in his house. He also said that Hamas operatives
would hide IEDs in streets hear mosques and in citrus groves.
9. Imad Yusuf Hamed , a Hamas terrorist operative from Beit Hanoun , said
that three months ago Hamas operatives had been authorized to use land
belonging to them and their families to hide barrels containing launchers
and rockets. He said that he had buried three and had two more which he was
supposed to bury. He also admitted that he had hidden Kalashnikov assault
rifles and ammunition behind his house.
Using Mosques as Weapons Storehouses
10. Hamas and the other terrorist organizations frequently use the many
mosques scattered throughout the Gaza Strip for military purposes . Subhi
Majed Attar , a Hamas terrorist operative from Al-Atatra in the northern
Gaza Strip, revealed during interrogation that some of the military training
he received from Hamas was theoretical. He was instructed in various issues,
including rockets and RPGs. The lessons were held in the Bilal bin Rabah
mosque in Al-Atatra .
11. Rami Misbah Abed Rabbo , Hamas terrorist operative from Jabaliya, said
that Hamas stored large quantities of weapons in mosques such as the Salah
al-Din mosque in the Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City, which housed rocket
and other weapons.
Using Public Institutions (Hospitals, Sports Clubs) for Military Purposes
12. Imad Yusuf Hamed said that Hamas situated one of its training camps in a
sports club behind the Omar Ibn Abed Al-Aziz mosque in Khan Yunis . He said
that a laboratory for the manufacture of IEDs and rockets was located in the
civilian administration building in the Jabaliya refugee camp, in the
northern Gaza Strip.
13. Rami Misbah Abed-Rabbo related that during Operation Cast Lead senior
Hamas operatives took over a very large bunker under the Shifa hospital in
Gaza City and hid there. In addition, after the operation (during the last
week of January 2009) Hamas also took over a Red Crescent clinic in Khan
Yunis and turned it into a facility for holding prisoners.
14. Nawaf Feisal Attar , from Al-Atatra, detained on January 11, 2009 , said
that workers for the Hamas administration received all the humanitarian aid
sent from Israel to the Gaza Strip. Gazans who were supposed to receive the
aid for free had to pay for it. He said it was easy to identify the aid that
came from Israel because of the Hebrew letters on the packaging.
15. Subhi Majed Attar , Hamas operative from Al-Atatra, said that to
encourage Palestinians to join its ranks, Hamas handed out coupons which
could be redeemed for food. Note : It is reasonable to assume that Hamas
acquired the food distributed to new recruits from the humanitarian aid
delivered to the Gaza Strip.
16. Hamad Faraj Saleh , from Jabaliya , recounted Hamas's control of the
humanitarian aid which was delivered to the Gaza Strip by UNRWA . He said
that the situation had existed de facto since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip
[June 2007]. As a result, he said, Fatah activists did not receive aid,
while food and equipment were transferred directly to Hamas operatives and
their supporters .
17. During Operation Cast Lead complaints were often heard that Hamas stole
the humanitarian aid delivered to the Gaza Strip and channeled it to Hamas
supporters. For example, a surfer on a Fatah Internet forum said that "the
aid goes into Hamas's stores. They sell it to poor civilians.who are forced
to wear green berets [identifying them with Hamas] to be able to buy it. If
you don't wear a green beret, there is neither food nor drink for you in
Gaza ." Another surfer added that "the Hamas militias take the aid that
arrives and give it to movement operatives.Hamas sells the aid.at higher
than normal prices." He also complained that the aid was not distributed by
organizations such as UNRWA and the Red Cross, but by Hamas (Fatah forum,
January 15, 2009 ). The claims made by Fatah supporters have been
substantiated by the interrogations of Hamas operatives detained by the IDF.
18. On February 4, 2009, two weeks after Operation Cast Lead, UNRWA
spokesman Christopher Jones said that on February 3 Hamas police raided the
UNRWA storehouses and confiscated [i.e., stole] 3,500 blankets and more than
400 food parcels which were earmarked for distribution to the Gazan civilian
population (AP, February 4, 2009).
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1 Based on interrogations of Hamas operatives detained during Operation Cast
Lead; information received from the Israel Security Agency. More details can
be found on the ISA website,
http://www.shabak.gov.il/English/EnTerrorData/Pages/cast-lead-Interrogations.aspx .
2 See Page 15 of our January 6, 2009 bulletin entitled "Hamas Exploitation
of Civilians
as Human Shields" at
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e028.pdf .
3 Our January 6, 2009 bulletin, "Hamas Exploitation of Civilians as Human
Shields," cites many examples of Gazans who became casualties or suffered
property damage as a result of rocket fire (See Section Four, "The price
paid by the civilian population in the Gaza Strip," page 65). The Gazans
resented the harm done to them and sometimes expressed their feelings in the
media. Hamas, however, was careful to suppress expressions of resentment and
prevented the media operating in the Gaza Strip from fully reporting the
suffering of the local population resulting from terrorist organization
rocket fire.
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